LiXEdrom

XES, XAS, RIXS, micro-jet station

LiXEdrom experimental station is equipped with a liquid micro-jet and a soft X-ray emission spectrometer and offer investigation with XAS and RIXS techniques of functional materials in solution.

The liquid solution is pumped into the experimental chamber through a circular glass capillary of 15-25 µm diameters at a flow rate of 0.35 - 1.5 ml/min and flow speed of around 40 m/s. The continuous freshly introduced solution enables experiments on samples free of synchrotron radiation damage which is a crucial prerequisite for investigating soft matter and biological systems. To preserve the ultra-high vacuum conditions required for soft X-ray experiments the LiXEdrom station is equipped with multi-stage pumping and liquid nitrogen cryo-traps that reduce the effective pressure by several orders of magnitude. Operating pressure in the main chamber is low 10-5 mbar, while at the connection to the beamline a pressure of 5·10-9 mbar is realized by the implementation of several pin-holes that reduce the high pressure flow toward the beamline section.

The X-ray spectrometer operates at grazing incidence angles and Rowland circle geometry. It is equipped with four gratings that cover the whole soft X-ray energy range from 30 eV to 1200 eV. To increase further the energy resolution, the spectrometer is operated at higher (2nd and 3rd) diffraction orders.

The detector consists of a stack of micro-channel plates (MCP), a phosphorous screen, and a charge coupled device (CCD). The MCP plates have a very small pore size of 5 µm and a small bias angle in order to increase spatial/energy resolution and detection efficiency at the CCD. They are coated with a thin film of cesium iodide to increase the number of secondary electrons and to enhance the overall detection efficiency. The CCD itself consists of an array of 1040 x 1392 pixels with a pixel size of 4.4 µm in order to match the resolving power of the grating with the spatial resolution of the CCD.

For more details and current status of the experimental station contact the station scientist(s).